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Disease Detection and Losses

Identification of Maize Viruses and Mollicutes and Their Potential Insect Vectors in Peru. L. R. Nault, Professor, Department of Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), Wooster, 44691; D. T. Gordon(2), R. E. Gingery(3), O. E. Bradfute(4), and J. Castillo Loayza(5). (2)Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, research chemist, Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, associate professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), Wooster, 44691; (5)Associate professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Molina, Lima, Perú. Phytopathology 69:824-828. Accepted for publication 26 February 1979. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1979. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-69-824.

Maize viruses and mollicutes and their potential vectors were surveyed in Peru. Locations and departments were the coastal valleys between Lima and Barranca (Lima), the Andean valleys of Urubamba and Calca (Cuzco), a high tropical valley near Tarapoto (San Martin), and the Callejon de Huaylas, a mountain valley between Malpaso and Caraz (Ancash). Leaf samples from 27 diseased plants were assayed. The following pathogens were detected by the methods indicated: corn stunt spiroplasma (CSS) by dark-field light microscopy; maize bushy stunt mycoplasma (MBSM) by Dalbulus maidis transmission and diagnostic symptoms in sweetcorn; maize rayado fino virus (MRFV) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA) and immunomicroprecipitin assay (MPA); a rhabdovirus, presumed to be maize mosaic virus (MMV), by electron microscopy of negatively stained sap; maize stripe virus (MStpV) by immunofluorescence (IF) and immune agar-gel double diffusion assay; maize dwarf mosaic virus strain A (MDMV-A) by EIA; and maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) by IF and MPA. Maize rayado fino virus, MMV, and MCMV were detected in maize samples and MDMV-A from Johnson grass from Lima; MBSM, MRFV, MMV, and MCMV from Ancash; and CSS, MRFV, MMV, MStpV, and MDMV-A from San Martin. No maize with virus symptoms was observed in Cuzco. Prior to this survey, only MCMV and MRFV had been identified from Peru. Dalbulus maidis (vector of CSS, MBSM, and MRFV) and Peregrinus maidis (vector of MMV and MStpV) were collected from Lima, Ancash, and San Martin; these are the first reports of these species from Peru.